News Archive

Using a single dose of a century-old drug,
scientists have eliminated autism symptoms in adult mice with an
experimental form of the disorder, providing hope that some autism
traits may not be permanent.

Can the brain repair itself from within? Duke
researchers, who have discovered a new neuron in the brain of adult mice
that is capable of telling stem cells to make more new neurons, are
suggesting it’s possible!

A genetic mutation causes mice to over-groom
to the point of near baldness, except for an obsessively touched-up
strip of hair between the ears. Such were the findings of an
international team of neuroscientists at NYU Langone Medical Center, who
intentionally bred the mice hoping to uncover clues about autism.

Dogs
are undergoing a new search-and-rescue mission - detecting cancer!
Having extremely sensitive noses, a research study has shown that dogs
are able to accurately detect the chemicals emitted from a tumor by a
tissue sample. This can lead to early detection that can save countless
lives!

Zoo-goers may marvel at their bare skin and wrinkles, but scientists
are more interested in the long lives of the pale, toothy and nearly
hairless rodents known as naked mole rats. With lifespans of up to 31
years, naked mole rats live decades longer than would be expected based
on their size. By comparison, mice live at most four years.

With funding from the National Institutes of
Health's National Institute of Aging, Cornell scientists are joining
interdisciplinary collaborators from across the country to form the
Canine Longevity Consortium – the first research network to
study canine aging. It will lay the groundwork for a nationwide Canine
Longitudinal Aging Study (CLAS), using dogs as a powerful new model
system that researchers can study to find how genetic and environmental
factors influence aging and what interventions might mitigate
age-related diseases.

Schizophrenia is a severe disease for which there is still no effective
medical treatment. In an attempt to understand exactly what happens in
the brain of schizophrenic people, researchers from the Univ. of
Southern Denmark have analyzed proteins in the brains of rats that have
been given hallucinogenic drugs. This may pave the way for new and
better medicines.

Flu
epidemics cause up to half a million deaths worldwide each year, and
emerging strains continually threaten to spread to humans and cause even
deadlier pandemics. A study by a McGill University professor reveals
that a drug that inhibits a molecule
called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) increases survival rates in mice infected
with a lethal dose of the H1N1 flu virus. The findings pave the way for
an urgently needed therapy that is highly effective against the flu
virus and potentially other viral infections.

Working
with animal models, Duke University researchers and other scientists
are making strides in growing muscle in the lab that not only repairs
itself but exhibits strength similar to that of normal muscle.

Using lab-grown muscle could one day help people with certain muscle
injuries, including accident victims with big gashes that lead to
significant scar tissue. Engineering muscle that works like natural
tissue could also accelerate the testing of new drugs: Scientists could
use this tissue in place of animals.

A new drug extracted from snail venom could provide a breakthrough in
treating severe chronic pain without the risk of addiction and
dangerous side effects, researchers have found. The venom - considered 100 times stronger than morphine -
could lead to the development of a new class of oral drugs used to
relieve nerve pain associated with injury, cancer, AIDS and other
diseases.

While scientists know that a superfamily of
genes inside olfactory receptors is responsible for our sense of smell –
we still don’t know the mechanism behind the interpretation of odor
molecules into a particular smell. A new study published
in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution has found a distinct
gene pattern in the olfactory receptors of fruit-eating bats –
potentially shedding some light on the mechanism behind our own sense of
smell.

New research using fruit flies with Alzheimer’s protein finds that the disease doesn’t stop the biological clock ticking, but detaches it from the sleep-wake cycle that it usually regulates. Findings could lead to more effective ways to improve sleep patterns in those with Alzheimer’s.

Cancer of the pancreas is usually not detected
until it’s too late to cure. But precursor lesions that form in the
pancreas and its ducts can signal the disease before it strikes, and
when caught early enough, they can be prevented from progressing to become cancer.

A new study reports two breakthroughs in understanding those lesions
and their role in pancreatic cancer: the development of the first mouse
model that simulates a precursor lesion called intraductal papillary
mucinous neoplasia (IPMN), and the identification of an enzyme, Brg1,
that appears to help cause the formation of IPMN lesions while also
suppressing another precursor lesion.